The National Transportation Safety Board has released a preliminary report on a deadly plane crash earlier this month in western Kentucky. The accident killed everyone on board except for a young girl.
The report released Friday shows the pilot of the twin-engine plane, Marty Gutzler, radioed to air traffic control that he was having "problems" with both of the plane’s engines. He was instructed to land at the nearby Kentucky State Dam Airport. Minutes later, Gutzler reported he had lost sight of the airfield. There were no further radio communications from the plane.
The January 2 crash killed Gutzler, his wife, their nine-year-old daughter and her cousin. The NTSB report says the victims were found strapped in their seats. The family was returning from Florida to their home in Nashville, Illinois. Marty Gutzler had a commercial pilot’s license and had logged 2,300 hours of total flight time. The plane’s most recent annual inspection occurred in March 2014.
The lone survivor of the crash was the Gutzler’s seven-year-old daughter who managed to free herself from the wreckage and walk about a mile to a Lyon County home for help.
